The Classic “Snookering of America!”
Wake up, America. We have been played.
And 98% of us are the victims.
Despite what our leaders may swear to you up and down, the reason for this deception is clear: Their continuity in office depends on the fact that the people don’t recognize that they have little or no say in what happens on a day to day basis in government and that government, as we know it, bears little relationship to the way the Framers perceived government during the last Continental Congress. Instead, what we have before us is a set piece, a “Let’s Pretend” canard that passes for government that we accept blandly and with little criticism as we continue to cling to the popular romantic notions of what a Constitutional Democracy is all about.
Adams, Franklin, Jefferson, Hamilton and Washington would be turning over in their graves if they knew that one of the few liberties we see practiced in Washington today is the liberty to manipulate government to meet the needs of the “haves,” the special interests, the corporatists, and others who through their lobbies and other devices actually influence what happens in these hallowed halls.
How is this mythology maintained? Through communications and smoke and mirrors. Today, most of our information comes from what we see and hear added to what we already believe. The “influentials” who influence what we see and hear through a down-sized, manipulated media empire, aim at maintaining the status quo and repeating the old shibboleths of rumor and innuendo; it is in their interest to focus on stability and conformity and in order to do so, find convenient scapegoats in those who have always been the scapegoats. The media they influence no longer pries into the depths of how government is run or what is best for the people or the clichéd notion of protection of the rights of all citizens. With lessened competition and ten or so media empires dominating, they make comfortable profits without having to engender the risk that they will alienate the powers that be.
Who are these great panjandrums of the media who have changed the rules as we sat back nonchalantly, not recognizing that we’ve been hoodwinked into believing that we still are a democracy that is indebted to the people.
But for the rest of us, the fact that ten media companies control the “news,” poses a constant and irrevocable challenge to the truth and objectivity.
What most don’t realize is that there are no controls, no monitoring in force. In fact, the big media players, the Saladins of communications, who are ostensibly guided by the FCC, actually enjoy carte blanche to say and do as they please…or, more likely, to curry favor and be responsive to their sponsors and benefactors. Even Rush Limbaugh, the voice of the angry and the self-interested, in clear violation of every pretension of morality, can say what he wants virtually without penalty, kind of a sleight to the original guiding regulations of the FCC.
But the real power behind the throne are those who constitute the 2% of the population who control 80% of the country’s wealth. These “haves” interface with the “influentials” who control what is said and done inside the halls of power.
Part of the problem is language, itself. In point of fact, these communications gurus have contributed to widening the gap between democrat and republican by reinforcing commonly held biases and perceptions. Unfortunately, in this, the media is influenced by the power brokers who employ whatever it takes to get its way, and that means Segretti-like tactics to frame the argument that allows the powers that be to control the debate and the use and ‘misuse’ of language. Even if they wanted to, most of the “Talking Heads” not sufficiently educated or trained to take issue with statements of policy or history. They are news readers; not experts in policy or history. While some might suggest otherwise, the fact remains that the arguments posed play to historical biases that change the perceptual landscape and serve to perpetuate the status quo, an environment where the “haves” dominate the “have-nots!” What is lacking on both sides is total objectivity but it is more pronounced by the special interests on the Right simply because they exercise more clout in the use and misuse of power.
The long and short of it is, that their biased perspectives only serves to reinforce the status quo because the status quo always favors the “haves.” . Keeping the public separated and distracted from the real issues allows the “haves” to move forward with their own agendas, at the expense of the majority.
To understand how this works, let’s backtrack for a moment. If you think about it, most Americans have been indoctrinated to believe that it is the radicalized elements of our society, the extremists, who account for virtually all of our problems. This has become almost visceral, in the sense that it is repeated frequently and nobody challenges that assumption. . We see that over and over again in all of the media. In its convenient code, the targets for the most part are the extremists on the right and the left. Mostly, however, it’s focused against the so-called “Left Wing” of the democratic party. Placing blame is part of the continuing campaign to predispose the citizenry to the dangers of the Left in true Goebbels-like fashion. This refocuses attention away from the power brokers, the corporations, the banks, Wall Street and other “influentials” who move their special interests forward. By pointing to the radicals as the nexus of the problem, we tend to be distracted from the real issues and their causes.
The real issues deal with things like jobs, the economy, Main Street, the cost of food, healthcare, and fuel. They are not the special interests that make more money for the “haves.”
If we accept their arguments, we play into their hands, and we allow ourselves to be manipulated to believe that the problem is one of political parties and extremism and thus avoid dealing with those who ultimately steer and influence policy and legislation.
The truth is that we face off against a consortium of those who want to keep the truth under a bushel basket, including those of the “Right Wing” who aide and abet such motives, helping to obscure the fact that, today, America is more like Dicken’s London in the 1800’s than the government of FDR.
The concealed truth, that if revealed, would contribute to further angst for the government and the “haves” is the fact that we now inhabit a two tier economy that has been in the process of formation since the 70’s, an economy where 40 million cannot afford insurance, works for low wages, and just manages to get by. (If you don’t believe that, I suggest you read the National Award Winning Study done on the Redistribution of Income written in 1984, originally run as a series in the Philadelphia Inquirer. It explained why those holding the top rungs of the economic ladder controlled 60% of the wealth of this country! And it has only gotten worse since.)
As James Carville said, “This is no 50-50 match, it is the bottom 98% of the Economy facing off against the top 2% of the population,” this tiny segment of the population has received all of the benefits of recent tax laws and other legislation approved by the GOP at the expense of the Middle Class….
Such disparities obviously do not mirror the true intent of the framers of the Constitution who were seeking equality of hope, expectation and opportunity as they designed the first government of the people and for the people.
So what about the “whipping boys” of the left, the nexus of all that we have been led to believe are wrong with our society. Certainly, they have become an easy target for every hate group in the country and pointed to as the ones to blame for everything that goes wrong in America.
Let us delve into that for a moment. In point of fact, it does not take a brain scientist to realize that for the past ten years, the left has had only marginal influence on politics and has mostly been sidelined or considered a “non-player.” The left has even been ignored by the last two democratic presidents, Clinton and Obama. Under Clinton, the party was moved to the right of the party of Rockefeller and Javits virtually negating those who were considered politically “on the left.”. Under Obama, the protests of the Left have been either dismissed or ignored, even though it was the Liberal/Progressive wing that helped him get elected. But you would never suspect that that from the dialogue that permeates our culture. Like a magician that has mastered sleight of hand, government has effectively labeled this segment of the political landscape as to blame for destabilizing society and contributing to democracy’s downfall than any serious audit might even begin to suggest. It is one of the biggest lies and used general to distract concerned elements of the society from looking at real causes.
The truth is that the liberal left has very little power because it lacks the cohesion and common ground required to unify its goals, and objectives. And everybody knows that no two liberals or progressives can get together on anything; yet, undeservedly, they have become the emotional outlet for the real deal-makers behind the scenes who benefit from the public’s ignorance, misguided thinking and concentrated antipathy for things they don’t understand. It is smoke and mirrors to the extreme.
What we’ve discovered is that those who influence the “influentials, ” are the economic elite, “the corporatists” the economic “haves,” and the “special interests.” The economic elites have the money and the power. The “influentials” represent them, not the common good. By obfuscating or misleading the people as to how the government actually works now, the system goes into a kind of default that allows the “haves” to get their way while conveying the belief that the GOP and the “haves” have the people’s best interests in mind, despite the evidence that shows otherwise.
To do their bidding, the power brokers employ an arsenal of tactics and tacticians that completely dominate all conversation as it pertains to issues and what should be deemed as what the people want, mostly this little to do with what the people see or want, but fundamentally what the “haves” and the special interests want.
These enablers include the partisan Think Tanks—which violate the rules governing think tanks non-tax status-- conservative interest groups, the pseudo-organizations that pose at being equal on both sides, and are not, such as the Council on Foreign Relations, the Tri-Lateral Commission, the Bilderbergers, all focused on one thing, policies and legislation that will allow bigger and bigger profits for corporate America with very little concern focused on the needs of the people for dependable infrastructure, decent low-cost transportation, the economy, housing, jobs, etc. They are the quasi-official influences who control the money and the thought processes—no matter who is in power.
How and why does this work so well?
Folks, it’s all about the money and what money buys… George Bush when he took office began on Day One pushing through the legislation sought by special interests. In recounting virtually all of the legislation moved through the Congress in those years, and as near as I can estimate, more than four hundred laws, policies, and pieces of legislation were enacted by the end of term one—yet, it is virtually impossible to find a single act that might be construed as having the best interests of the majority in mind. The legislation flowed smoothly because both sides benefited, money flowed into Republican coffers, and the agenda of special interests was satisfied. It had little to do with the public’s interests.
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But why didn’t anyone speak out.
We don’t know, maybe it was survival, ambition, fear, who knows. But when someone digs through the remains of this culture, that question will be raised over and over again, one suspects. That silence was somehow reminiscent of what went on when Hitler decided to create a Union with Austria, or when he moved west to take over disputed land bordering on Germany, or East into Poland. Those who best represented the people did not speak out, so the abuses became worse.
For the most part, the average American, the 98% of the rest of us, has suffered as a result of legislation for special interests and, at the very same time, the disinterest of this segment of government in actually running the government successfully for all the people.
At the same time, the new corporate elites were buying into and leveraging corporations to represent their own personal interests, not that of America, and earning 400% of the wages of an average line worker. America’s resolve was bought off with a book called the Greening of America that suggested it was okay to get away from manufacturing; okay to move off-shore in anticipation of the Information Age. Only, the Information Age came and is dominated by India. And the companies that moved off-shore cost jobs and did not pay taxes. Something was wrong in America. Off-shoring” and “down-sizing, ” two biased, self-aggrandizing schemes designed to shelter corporations off shore and to to lower costs through cuts in overhead and staffing gave corporations the power they needed to do whatever it took to build profits on the false assumption that that would be better for everyone. It wasn’t.
What made such pervasive changes possible?
The conspiratorial fix was made possible by TV’s power, it was proven no longer necessary to press the flesh to win an election; not when you can get into bed with business that would provide the money for advertising, in return for a few legislative favors. Like the time Hitler first moved into neutral territory bordering on France, the good people did not interfere, and as a result, condoned the marriage of business and industry, changing once and for all our fragile with our Democracy.
It has been downhill ever since, from business sponsored legislation to influence.. And the rules changed to downplay the influence of the majority on national elections and to further minimize the wishes of people in a free society ( a role further diminished with the approval of the SC of the Citizens United ruling that allowed corporations to give anonymously towards the party of their choice with no upward restrictions. Under the SC, corporations have it both ways, the protection of individuals, and the right to do whatever is necessary to produce profits.)
Today, the power of money and influence runs everything and most especially Congress, and that works equally for both sides, where the people’s representatives are reminded that without large donors, they would never have the ability to advertise and win elections. Increasingly, it is not surprising, considering the “influentials” operate on both sides of the desk contributing to a growing “sameness” between both parties and strong political support for business and corporations with the exception of the Liberal Wing, which by itself stands in unique opposition to that trend line and represents a true distinction between parties.
Now, with business firmly in bed with government, the canard is complete.
None of this closeness between government and the people it is supposed to protect and represent, augers well for the 270 million plus people who occupy the rest of the positions on the economic ladder and constitute both the needy and the Middle Class for it is clear that representatives elected by big donor dollars cannot have two masters: the people and their corporate sponsors inasmuch as their interests are very different.
And therein lies the problem.
To characterize the problem as one of “left” or “right” miscasts the problem and does a disservice to honesty. The real problem is the interests of the “haves” is incompatible with the interests of the “have nots,” and they are mutually exclusive.
The real problem is the power of money to influence the candidate to make decisions that are not necessarily in the best interests of the American people and do so because that representative—from either side of the desk, has an obligation to the benefactor, not to those who elected him/her.
As a potential solution, it seems that there are really only two practical courses of action, either we take the money out of elections by having government and the people underwrite elections and return to the old standards and a commitment to oversight and regulation and, thereby, lessen the influence of the rich and the corporatists to change the political landscape so that it favors them; or we can, alternatively, agree to come together to change our form of government because most assuredly under the present conditions, it is very hard to call America today a democracy that represents the interests of the majority, including the poor and the needy.
For the last ten years, we have seen America go only one way, the poor get poorer and the rich get richer, a template that suggests that if we are not already, we are moving increasingly towards an oligarchic form of government of corporatists and the very rich and the threat of slavery and Serfdom or anarchy and chaos.
It is time for those among us who are honest and understand the critical point we are at in deciding the fate of our country ask ourselves in the process whether the noble experiment deserves to be continued or whether we begin the search for another form of government that will do a better job of representing the interests of all the people.
But first, we must recognize the situation for what it is not a question of right or left, but the rich and powerful running our government without monitoring or control by the people and without concomitant justice for the people as envisioned by the original Founding Fathers. All made possible by the unlimited and uncontrolled use of TV and corporate advertising.
To answer these questions of monumental import, we must enter into a national dialogue to confront the challenge head on without being misguided by the mis-characterization of what has happened in an effort to keep the people distracted and confused as to the cause. Wiser heads must prevail if America is to continue as a democratic form of government.
Respectfully submitted,
Les Aaron
